A holder suitable for safely supporting, protecting and transporting magnetic tape cassettes in a vehicular environment has long been sought after in the automotive accessory field.
Desirable qualities of such a cassette holder must include an esthetically pleasing design, convenience of use, protection of the cassettes and minimal danger to vehicle occupants in the event of a crash. Low cost, simplicity of fabrication, and light weight are additional features that further qualities the marketability of such a holder.
The present invention arose out of a recognition of the various deficiencies of prior art cassette holders in many of these respects, and the recognition of the problem resulted in a conception by the inventor of a cassette holder that embodies all of the desirable qualifites set forth above in a uniquely functional tape cassette holder that has particular utility in a vehicular environment.
The present invention utilizes a turntable enclosed within a lightweight housing with resilient elastomeric foam material mounted on the turntable for supporting, restraining and protecting the tape cassettes. Radially extending cavities are provided within the housing through an array of foam material and the turntable is readily rotated by an indexing knob to enable any of the cavities to be aligned with a suitable loading and unloading opening in the wall of the housing. In a broad sense, various other tape cassette holders known in the prior art have used a compartmented, rotary support within a housing for holding tape cassettes. For example, the holders illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,765,738 and 3,692,376 are of this type. Moreover, the broad concept of supporting and protecting small objects by means of elastomeric foam material is exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,335,894 and 3,080,963; still further, the general concept of providing a door in the sidewall of a circular housing for providing access to a compartmented turntable within the housing is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 1,611,179. Mounting brackets for housings are furthermore generally acknowledged to be known in the art for mounting the housings in a vehicular environment.
The present invention, however, is believed to constitute a marked advancement in the art of vehicular-mounted tape cassette holders, and the various details of construction of the embodiments described herein of the present invention and the advantages that will be shown as deriving from these constructional details are believed to amply support this belief.